The problem with your work life balance is you!

Now I get that this is a pretty provocative title but just take some time to reflect upon it and see if any of it rings true.

Until joining IBM I was my own worst enemy at balancing work and home life, and it makes me feel incredibly sad to reflect upon that. When I joined IBM, I not only took full advantage of our policies and ways of working but also set myself some pretty strict principles.

Picture the situation, a meeting invite comes in outside of working hours, what’s the first thing you do…. It’s probably accept it right. This is where is all starts, that’s the first step to accepting that life is less important than work and a slippery slope you have started on. You need to take time to decide if this works with life and work.

Now picture this.

Next week we will have a meeting with our team and would love your input on the projects you have been working on.

Do you think can you participate with us? Will be around 25 minutes and will be a huge pleasure have you with us 

The next meeting will be on Oct 15th at 6pm in your time

Do you think that works for you?

6pm isn’t great for me, I put my little girl to be at that time.

Omg! Don't worry! Family 1st, always ! 

We can try to change the meeting time or if you prefer, we will have a new one on Oct 29th at an earlier time.

This was an actual Slack exchange with a colleague and it makes me happy.

So not only do we have a culture of work life balance here at IBM but it’s also about making a conscious decision not to accept the invite and I personally always say why.

This is of course just a single instance, but my approach is always the same. I have to make a decision if the meeting/call etc. is more important than something at home or in my personal life.

Now don’t get me wrong everyone’s work/life balance is different and the important point I am hoping to get across is that it’s your decision to make. Of course, there are times that I work late, and I am 100% guilty of checking my emails etc. in the evenings but that’s my choice, I recognise that in the global role I operate in that time zones come into play and I choose to work outside of the ‘usual hours’ to help move projects along and support our teams.

To start taking control of your work life balance just take a few seconds to consider both work and life before accepting that invite. 

My top 5 tips for balancing work and life.

• Take a few seconds to think before clicking accept

In the examples given above its far too easy to just hit accept as you look free. Now unless you add your whole life into your calendar (and I know people who do) just take a second to think.

• Ask for an agenda

How many meetings have you joined that you didn’t need to be on? There was little or nothing you could add or take away and removing yourself from meetings you don’t need to be in will make a big difference to your productivity.

• Never just decline

My bug bear is when people just decline, I personally always offer alternatives and state why I am not able to attend the original invite.

• Check people calendars

How many times have you sent an invite just checking your calendar? I always check other peoples calendars and if there are no free slots I will drop them a note and ask when they could do.

• Be considerate of time zones

Depending on your calendar set up it’s not always easy to see what time zone someone is within when sending the invite.

Remember you are your own worst enemy to your work life balance. Take action to correct the imbalance.